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Call for Denise Scott Brown to be given Pritzker recognition

In a speech prepared for the AJ Women in Architecture lunch, Scott Brown called on her role in Robert Venturi’s 1991 win to be acknowledged retrospectively. Describing it as a ‘very sad’ situation, she said: ‘They owe me not a Pritzker Prize but a Pritzker inclusion ceremony. Let’s salute the notion of joint creativity.’
— architectsjournal.co.uk

Ms. Venturi Scott Brown's main achievement was to help destroy modernism's hedgemony in architecture rather than execute first rate buildings. The fact that the she got stiffed shows how unprogressive the field of architecture really is. Being politically liberal? Easy. Being intellectually liberal...priceless.

I can't get into the intellectual aspect of this. It's hard to tell what was Venturi's work and what was Scott-Brown's work, or was it always a joint effort? I look at a lot of his/her/their work and it has not held up well. I sort of liked the Seattle Art Museum for its surface articulation and successfully creating something "hard" and institutional, and "softening it up." I wish I could say the same for this student services type building at Univ. of Delaware. I've seen better theses than this.

ROBERT VENTURI: "Denise is an architect and a planner, I am an architect. For us, a large part of design is setting out ideas and critiquing them. You try something and then you criticize it. I love that we constantly critique what we are doing – and do it as partners."

Venturi Scott Brown and Associates has repeatedly tried to show that Denise is an equal partner. It is time for Pritzker to recognize her work!

If you believe that Denise Scott Brown deserves the same as Robert Venturi, please take a minute to sign the petition!

There are a few things i don't understand and should be answered. I'll play devils advocate, even as a supporter of female architects (Maya Lin is my favorite designer of all time).

1) What was the prize rewarding exactly? Robert Venturi was responsible for Complexity and Contradiction, the Vanna Venturi and much early work. DSB's contribution begins six years later in 1970. If the prize is for the early groundbreaking act, then Venturi alone seems to be responsible. If it's a full career work, then DSB could be included.

2) Ada Louise Huxtable was on the jury. Why did she leave DSB off?

3) What does Venturi think about this? Does it matter? Whose opinion matters?

4) Does Maya Lin deserve a Priztker? (Yes)

5) Was it disrespectful by DSB of Toyo Ito to campaign for this before his ceremony, effectively overshadowing him (thanks to the twitterverse)?

Scott Brown collaborates with the then brand new firm Venturi and Rauch on the Monumental Fountain on the Benj. Franklin Parkway Competition in 1964.

Scott Brown invited Venturi to a four day trip to Las Vegas in 1966.

Museum of Modern Art published Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture in 1966, but actual distribution did not occur until March 1967. [In a conversation I had with Mark Wigley late November 1999, Mark was convinced that Scott Brown was very much responsible for the sudden change of tone in the last chapter of Complexity and Contradiction, saying there was even evidence of this within the Complexity and Contradiction manuscripts in the MoMA archives.]

Venturi and Scott Brown marry 23 July 1967.

Venturi and Scott Brown teach at Yale 1967-70, including the architectural design and research studio Las Vegas 1968.

Venturi and Scott Brown jointly write "A Significance for A & P Parking Lots, or Learning from Las Vegas" published in Architectural Forum, March 1968.

Scott Brown becomes a partner of Venturi and Rauch in 1969.

So where is John Rauch in all this? Perhaps the Pritzker feels if Scott Brown gets the award, then Rauch should get the reward as well. But then a third of the prize money would have to be given over to Rauch. Just wondering.

"And last, you will notice during this loosely chronological description I have used more and more the first person plural, that is, ‘we”—meaning Denise and I. All my experience representing appreciation, support, and learning from, would have been less than half as rich -without my partnership with my fellow artist, Denise Scott Brown. There would be significantly less dimension within the scope and quality of the work this award is acknowledging today—including dimensions theoretical, philosophical and perceptive, especially social and urban, pertaining to the vernacular, to mass culture, from decorative to regional design—and in the quality of our design where Denise’s input, creative and critical, is crucial."